DIY mummy votives!

First of all, thanks so much for the birthday wishes!! I had a great, relaxing birthday weekend with family and friends. I am so blessed and really can't ask for more. I feel like I have gained a couple thousand (or so) new friends in the past year because of this blog, so it was extra special with all your sweet comments.

I got the idea for this fun craft from one of my Halloween crafty mags. For the first one, I changed up their instructions just a bit to save my sanity. I started out with black card stock and used my $1.99 wavy scissors to cut out strips long enough to go around a votive holder once:The mag said to tear out little. itty. bitty. sections of paper by hand....uhhhh. Nah. This works much easier!

Then, grab a hole punch and make "eyes" all down the strip:

Hot glue the start and end of the strip to the back:

Keep going with the strips till you get to the top. I think I had about five strips per candle, but you could do less if you made them thicker.

Then, use a black Sharpie to complete the eyes:

I made them go every which way -- and some crossed-eyed. Those are my favorites! ;)

The mag said to use a small brush to paint the eyes on. Again...uhhhh, NAH.

For the second candle, I kind of just winged this little creation on my own. I took some googly eyes and hot glued them all over the votive holder:

It's OK if glue smudges out, you won't see it later.

I took some leftover cheesecloth, cut it into strips and wrapped it like a mummy!:

UM, I know! Cuteness!! I just hot glued one end, then wrapped it and hot glued the other end. I used one long, skinny piece of the cloth for each votive.

Drop in some LED votives (they are all I use for decor like this anymore -- love them!), and this is what you get:

At night, the cauuuteness really shines through:

Oh my goodness gracious, they are adorable. I heart them very, very much.

What a fun project to do with the kids! My guy is still a little too small to do this one, but with some supervision, and an adult handling the hot glue, they could definitely join in.

I made eight of them for ten bucks -- but I bought new votive holders and googly eyes because what I had were too small. Cheap!

Do you love my little ghouls??

P.S. I hope to open my Etsy shop tomorrow! I will do a post when it is up. :)